people getting there. my only recommendation, because i know this from the past, like you mention, to do it in an organized way, so they're not able to sell them. what they need is doctors and -- money, probably, that they can use to help the people there. >> that's good advice. emilio -- [ speaking foreign language ] -- thank you very much. >> we're proud of you. >> likewise, me too of you. our continuing coverage of the crisis in haiti is now moving on to "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. rick, thanks very much. the breaking news from haiti, staggering destruction and desperation, almost 24 hours after a massive earthquake. the prime minister tells cnn hundreds of thousands of people in haiti may -- repeat, may -- may be dead. you heard that number right. hundreds of thousands, it's too soon to know.

most of the capital city of port-au-prince is destroyed, including the presidential palace. people are claws through rubble, trying to reach loved ones who are trapped. just a little while ago. we spoke -- here's doctor gupta's interview with the president of haiti. >> reporter: what are you doing here at the airport? >> my palace collapsed. >> reporter: so you don't have a home? >> so i came here to work, but they told me i cannot work here, because it's not safe. so i'm going home. >> reporter: you're going to go back to the home. are you able to live in the palace, or is it completely destroyed? >> i cannot live in the palace,

i cannot live in my own house. because the two collapsed. >> reporter: where are you going to go tonight? >> i don't know. >> reporter: it's striking the president of this country doesn't know where he's going to sleep tonight. >> no, i have -- i have plenty of time to look for a bed, but now i am working how to rescue the people. but sleeping is not a problem. we're going to have more of dr. gupta's interview with rene preval, but gary tuchman is in haiti on the ground. gary, tell our viewers what you have seen and heard since you got there just a few hours ago. >> reporter: wolf, this is an unbelievable catastrophe. up and down the streets, there is not one billing, not one

structure, not one house, not one business that hasn't been either heavily damaged or destroyed. but more disturbing, when you go up many of the streets, there are bodies lying on the sides of the streets. the bodies have been paid some respects. they're putting sheets over them. however, there are absolutely no police, fire, emergency authorities on the scene, as the search for survivors continues. it's kind of like chaos and anarchy. not that people are misbehaving, but you have common citizens digging through tons of rubble without any emergency officials and without any tools whatsoever. frantically. tons of rubble they couldn't hope to lift them up, but they're still trying to lift up rocks where they think there might be survivors. they look for flying flying over certain areas where they may detect human remains. we were with them while they were doing that. they found human remains, it was someone who had hassed away.

you see wheelbarrows trucks full of bodies. >> are you still hearing people crying out, wailing, if you will, for help, people who are trapped in these buildings? >> reporter: we don't hear people wailing in the buildings. we hear people wailing who are looking for people in the buildings. we were just at a school a short time ago, that doubled as a school for adult education at night. we see bodies in the rubble, and we see a 27-year-old woman, a mother screaming for her child who's missing. so it's just so desperately sad, and -- there really is nobody. it's just chaotic. >> i think our signal is coming in and out with gary tuchman. he's on the scene for us in port-au-prince, a devastating report from gary tuckman. we have anderson cooper on the scene, sanjay gupta is there,

chris lawrence, ivan watson, jonathan mann, a whole team of reporters. we're going to be checking in with all of them throughout these hours, but joining us is the ambassador of haiti, raymond joseph. a devastating report you just heard that, mr. ambassador. i know i've been on the phone with initials in your government. we heard the president of haiti, rene preval tell sanjay gupta moments ago, he doesn't know where he's going to sleep tonight. tell our viewers what you're hearing from back home. >> what i'm hearing is that this is the worst catastrophe that the people in my country have lived through, that they don't remember until when. we had four hurricanes in 2008, and people thought that was awful, but for the first time we

are hearing that the death toll or the missing might go over100,000. >> now, let's be precise. we heard your prime minister tell cnn earlier in the day he feared hundreds of thousands, then later clarified and said more than 100,000, but you are saying based on everything you're hearing from authorities on the ground in haiti that more than 100,000 people are feared dead. >> dead or missing. >> you're not including injured. >> well, the injured they have found, but there are others they don't know where they are, and we have to say they're missing until they're found. you know, it is something that gnawed at my heart, gnawed amy innards, because back in 2004

when i flew into haiti after a 13-year absence, coming in on american airlines, i look at the windows, and i had tears in my eyes, although i'm not a very emotional person, because i saw a bunch of new blocks like matchboxes over dotting the hills that i did not know before, 13 years earlier. when i got down on the ground, i went to observe, and these we are tinderbox houses, and i wrote a column for the defunct "new york sun" in that april 2004, and i say it is a catastrophe waiting to happen. >> did you know personally how dangerous an earthquake could be, that there was this fau faultline runs through the caribbean?

>> i was not thinking about an earthquake. i was thinking about an avalanche, hurricane that would come in and wash these little houses off the sides of the hills. so when i hear about 100,000 may be dead or unaccounted for, i don't think it's exaggerated. the city was built for about 50,000, and today we have 2 million. there's no infrastructure for that, and the houses -- what you call houses are flimsy little boats. i want you to stand by. this earthquake is causing enormous pain obviously in haiti, but around the world, people want to help. i want to ask you if the u.s.

government, other governments are helping in this situation, if they're doing what needs to be done. the ambassador from haiti, raymond joseph, will stay with us. we're going back to speak with our reporters who are on the scene, we're standing by. sanjay gupta is there, anderson cooper, susan candiotti. our breaking news coverage continues after this. wow, that's a low price!

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ambassador from haiti to the united states, that more than 100,000 are feared dead or missing as a result of this earthquake that rocked haiti almost 24 hours ago. more than 100,000 people. we heard the same thing from the prime minister of haiti just a few hours ago. susan candiotti is now on the scene for us. just a little while ago filed this report. >> reporter: over my shoulder you will see some of the thousands of homes that are built into the side of the mountains here. these ones you see over my shoulder incredibly were not impacted by the earthquake, but as we flew from the dominican republic into port-au-prince, we began to see right away some of the devastation caused by this earthquake. we saw, for one thing, a lot of homes that were employeded, looked as though they had been imploded. then when we finally set down or helicopter at the airport here,

we saw cracks in the airport, we saw people teeming outside, lined up, but patiently, without causing problem, waiting to see if they could get a commercial flight out. there was no way that was going to happen, but the real impact was when we started to fly through the streets of port-au-prince, in particular a neighborhood called delma, where you're driver said you'll see a lot of death here. in fact, that's exactly what we saw, as we drove block after block, we saw first one body, then two, then three, then four at a time, then five lined up blk after block after block. each of these covered by sheets. and then in an almost chilling scene, you would see people in some instances sitting nearby, some of them with vacant stareness their eyes, just sitting in the middle of the street. at times you would see young children walking about, as though seeing this horror didn't bother them, and you had to

wonder is that because this country has suffered so much and through so many natural disasters over so many years, but you also saw a sense of people trying to help each other. for example, as we drove up a major thoroughfare teeming with people, you saw people walking down the middle of the street using a makeshift gurney, one of the earthquake victims on top. you saw collapsed buildings one right after another pancaked down, both homes and businesses. for example, a gas station that had crumbled. we also were able to witness one gas station that incredibly was open and had gas. you can imagine what those lines looked like, but this is a country that's suffered yet another blow, almost 3 million people in the city of port-au-prince, the capital city. major damage to the national palace. we have not yet been to any of the hospitals yet, but again we've heard some of the estimates of numbers of dead, and we can only begin to imagine

how those numbers will actually add up in the end after seeing just what we did over the course of just a few hours. the downtown area has suffered a lot of damage and some of the other buildings and homes obviously up into the hills, but then you will also see off in the distance areas that seem untouched, as we flew in on the outskirts, we didn't see a lot of damage, but we saw several buildings that had been damaged. so how widespread it is is hard to say on the outskirts, but in the city, and we've just begun to look around, it is terrible, it is just terrible, and it is heartbreaking to see. >> susan candiotti just moments ago reporting from port-au-prince. she's there. chris lawrence is there as well, our pentagon correspondent has made his way to port-au-prince. chris lawrence, i'm here with haiti's ambassador in washington. we're going to talk to you, but tell us what you're seeing right

now as nightfall approaches. >> reporter: well, wolf, we're here at the airport here in haiti, and you can see a tremendous amount of crowds, everyone crowding around the entrance to the airport. everyone desperate really for information. nobody knows what's going on. people have told us they have heard no word from their embassies, trying to figure out when they may be able to get a flight out of here. many of them don't have anything left. norm clark here is from florida. you had just an incredible story, norm, about how you got out of the earthquake and what you were trying to do with a lot of the kids you were with. >> we were trying to help the operation love the children for haiti. i was upstairs in the second floor and all of a sudden everything started trembling. we started running downstairs, starting grabbing the kids by the armfuls and throwing them

out of the way of the how is itself, and kept getting more until all of them were hurt. we just give praise to god for protecting us, and it's devastating now to be here. we slept last night on the ground, and there was probably 50, 60 tremors all night long. some of them were very bad. so all the babies were crying. it was a very scary experience, but -- >> reporter: right now do you have any idea when you're going to get out of here? >> we have no place to sleep. we slept on the ground last night. we're trying to get out of here. we told us our ambassador was supposed to have been here at 2:00. it's 4:20. he still isn't here. there's no food or water here, and there's a lot of people here hurting, not as bad as the haitian, but we would like some representation to help us get back home to our country. so if somebody could get him here, we would appreciate it. >> reporter: a plea right there for the ambassador or someone

from the state department to get some information out about when maybe people might get out. i want to show you exactly what he's talking about. if you look down there, you can see just people camped out. there are people literally from all over, as we take you through here. a lot of people from hate irwho are trying to get out, trying to get out of the country. some of them have said their homes were completely destroyed, others have told us that even though their homes weren't completely destroyed, the foundation is so unstable, they have nowhere else to go. a lot of people have just started to camp out here on the ground, and again, i think he made a great point by saying, no one is bringing at this point any food or water down here. you know, you could see a situation where very shortly that could become a major, major problem as people are just out here exposed to the elements with nothing to eat, nothing to drink. so, again, i think there is going to be perhaps not a dire need right at this hour, but i

think in the next 12 hours, you're going to see an even greater need for some sort of relief supplies to start to get brought in here for people who have nowhere else to go. wolf? >> chris, hold on for a second, because the ambassador for haiti in the united states is here in "the situation room" with me right now, ambassador raymond joseph. when will those suppliesed, based on what you're hearing from the state governmedepartme your own government, when will those aircraft start coming in? >> based on a meeting i had this morning with the state department, there is some relief reaching port-au-prince. perhaps by now they have some relief getting there. >> the planes will be able to land at that main airport? >> yes, because the department of defense is coming in with an emergency tower, a control tower, because the control tower fell. so they're coming in with an

emergency control tower. but even without that, some planes have landed. the dominicans came in this morning. >> and they brought some of our own cnn reporters and producers, and technical people in with them from the dominican republic. i want to go back to chris lawrence. chris, you can assure those folks around you at the airport, we just heard from the ambassador, the u.s. government, the state department, the pentagon, where you normally works, they have ashushed the ambassador the supplies will start arriving, maybe within the coming hours, which is obviously very, very important and good news, because people will be hungry, they'll be thirsty, they'll need supplies. chris, what else have you seen in these few hours that i've been there? >> reporter: wolf, i think i got my first taste of it as we were

flying in from santo domingo. a young woman when hatee who's sitting next to me started crying hysterically as we started flying over. you could see that complete buildings or flattened, completely flattened to the ground. she went on to say that her mom was here, her mom may have been trapped in a building. she had no way to contact her. i think that's another big point. you know, as you look at people here, they have no way to get word out to a lot of their family members, which is extremely frustrating. she said, i'm coming here, but i have no idea what's happened to my mom, i can't get ahold of her. she estimated her house was about, you know, maybe 15 miles away, and they planned to just as soon as they landed to immediately just start walking to try to get out there as quickly as possible. i also had a chance to drive around certain areas of the city. i will say this, i did see certain areas that looked fairly

normal, where some sort of normal life was still continuing. then you would see other buildings where an entire house had just completely collapsed on itself. at one point at one of the homes, i could see a woman's arm where she had clearly been trapped under her home during that earthquake. i saw a business that had completely just tipped over, a three-story building tipped over on its side. some people said about three people died in that. so i think one of the big things will be trying to go out and determine without a lot of communication exactly who was in some of these buildings at the time the earthquake hit. as we were able to talk to folks, a lot of them were able to tell us, we were at the hospital, we were working with children, when the earthquake hit, it destroyed the hotel. but again they were at a

different building, so i think that will be a big thing is two of -- when the earthquake hit, and then hopefully trying to get morn and more communication online. wolf? >> chris, i want to alert our viewers, stand by for a moment. we now have more resources, cnn, on the ground than any news organization. these one of the first live reports that anyone is seeing from haiti, cnn is really devoting enormous amount of energy and resources to getting you the information you need. this is a tragedy that's unfolding. we heard the ambassador say just a few moments ago, more than 100,000 people he fears are either missing or dead or -- mr. ambassador, i know you tried to stay in tough with authorities. you had a chance to speak to chris lawrence or pentagon correspondent who's there right now. is there anything you want to ask him that could help you in making sure the people of haiti

get the supplies they need? >> the one thing i would like to ask, is there a way of moving about in the city? are the streets cleared enough for you to move about? because in talking with some officials, they told me, the thing they have to do is leave the car parked someplace and walk for miles, because there was no way of walking -- or driving in the streets of port-au-prince. are the streets drivable right now? >> reporter: someone from our control room was talking while he was talking. can you please repeat exactly what he said there at the end? >> he wants to know, chris, assuming the supplies can get to the airport or to a port, are the streets usable? can people drive trucks to dlifr

supplies around port-au-prince? because authorities here in washington have told the ambassador that even once the supplies getting there in large quantities, it's not going to be easy moving those supplies out around the city of 2 million people, port-au-prince to make sure the supplies get to those who need them. he wants to know if the streets are drivable. >> reporter: we were out earlier. i think the big question from the ambassador was, do you feel like the streets are drivable? if the trucks start coming with some of the relief supplies, food and water, how would you describe the roads out there? >> i don't know exactly. there's a lot of people that need -- because they are on the -- a lot of walls. i don't exactly know we can do that. maybe we can try to describe --

a lot of people to give food or to give water to those people, and then they've got to come with other person to try to get those people out of the wall and under the wall. >> reporter: i know, just when we were trying to drive around, wolf, trying to find gas, all of the gas stations were completely closed. we had to go, you know, into an actual neighborhood and basically, you know, buy it from somebody's home, so that gives you an idea of just how hard it will be, you know, if they don't start opening up some of the fuel centers, you know, not only the roads, the conditions of the roads, but having enough gas to get around the city to all the ate that will need -- wow, we just felt that. yeah, you felt that? yeah, i think everybody here just really felt one of the aftershocks. yeah, you can still feel it a

little bit, too. i have to say that's probably one of the first aftershocks we've felt here in quite some time since we've been here. one of the people we spoke with said, you know, he felt last night, he could feel the shaking all night long after all these aftershocks. i can tell you, having lived in california and having gone through a lot of earthquakes, both small and larger earthquakes, sometimes those aftershocks can be, you know, just a dangerous or just as scary as the actual earthquake itself, depending on where you were. i can tell you, are, just a few seconds ago, we felt the entire ground rumble right through here. >> it's very scary stuff, these aftershocks from the earthquake. it's been going on now for 24 hours. in fact we're approaching the end of the first 24 hours. what a tragic situation. mr. ambassador, do you have another question you want to ask chris lawrence? it's your opportunity to pin him down on something you need,

information you need from the scene. i know you're having trouble getting through to your own government. >> the other question to you, have you been able to speak to government people? do you have phone? did they provide you some telephone at the airport? because that's the way it is. when you arrive in port-au-prince right away at the airport, you can get some local phones. have you been able to get some local conversation going? >> i think we may have lost a connection with chris. i don't know if you heard that question, chris, if you didn't, he wants to know if people can get access to cell phone service at the airport if they arrive -- i guess he's specifically interested in how you guys, all of our cnn team members there on the ground, how you -- you managed to communicate with us and the rest of the world?

>> well, it's through, you know, this really fancy elaborate setup. we can't just get on our cell phones and call. i would say most of the people here -- anybody have cell service? cell phones? >> none whatsoever since yesterday. it's crazy. it's ridiculous. however the people of haiti are united to help out. we are in the middle of a crisis right now. we are in a state of emergency, and we need help. but the unity that the haitians have right now, it's incredible. >> beyond belief. >> reporter: we haven't seen -- i've been driving around here, you know, we haven't seen a lot of people being unruly. for the most people we've seen people pitching in, helping. it seems rather calm in port-au-prince. >> the waters and the drinks, they give it to the people. the taxi drivers, they don't have the people pay.

they take the people, the victims, take them to the hospital free of charge. >> and the police is wonderful. >> they're wonderful. >> right now they really have a unified effort. >> this is beyond politics, they reality. this is mother nature talking, and everybody is together. >> reporter: thank you very much. you heard i'm sure the ambassador will be happy to hear that. people who are telling us basically that they are very happy with the way some government officials seem to have responded to this crisis. not only government officials, but everyday people in haiti, people pitching in. you know, i've got to tell you u. just in driving around, you definitely see that in some of the neighborhoods, you know, families starting to pitch in, we saw this one truck that would pulled up. it had water. a lot of people were coming up with little plastic jugs to scoop the water out to take the water back home to their own families. so, again, you know, it's hard toss if that will last, if

that's the case in every part of this city. it's a huge city, but it is a small slice, a piece of the bigger story that we've been able to see, wolf. >> that's encouraging to hear how folks in haiti are rallies around, working together, they're cooperating, mr. ambassador, are you surprised to hear that report from chris? >> no, i'm not at all surprised. there is something that has happened in haiti in the past four years that i think the outside world has not understood. when president preval was elected with about 51% of the vote, he turned around and he said 49% didn't vote for me, and he opened his arms to the 49% and chose some of his cabinet ministers from among them. this is unheard of in modern haitian history, and so now by having a government of consensus, you -- you started to have everybody feeling that they

have a stake in what's happening, and that has brought political stability to the country. >> all right. mr. ambassador, i'm going to have you stand by, if you don't mind. if you have to leave, you'll let me know, the former president of the united states bill clinton is speaking at the united nations, a special envoy for haiti, and he's making some comments. we're going to have that for our viewers. that's coming up. we're going to go back to port-au-prince and elsewhere in haiti. you just heard chris lawrence, susan candiotti, gary tuchman. anderson cooper is on the scene for us. dr. sanjay gupta is there. jonathan mann. we have a whole tame. cnn is devoting -- to brif you the most comprehensive information, where it's now feared, according to haitian authorities, including the ambassador and the prime minister, more than 100 those people may be dead.

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the former president of the united states is at the united nations right now, a special u.n. envoy for haiti. just a few moments ago, this is what he said. >> working in heartbreaking circumstances like this for three decades now. what we need now is food, water,

supplies for first aid and shelter. we have got to find out who's alive. we have to care for the people who are dead, and to try to preserve them so their loved ones can identify them. and that has to be done by people on the ground. i have great confidence in -- >> we're going to get more from bill clinton, the former president, shortly, but i want to get to chad myers right away. we just heard chris lawrence, he felt an aftershock, this almost 24 hours after the earthquake, a 7.0 struck, how normal, how usual, extraordinary is this? >> not at all, wolf. there's 35 other aftershocks already on the map since the 7.0. the dwaeks continue. i call them earthquakes, because there were a comes 5 puff 6s and 5.9s yesterday. in real-world situation that would be its own earthquake. it's called an aftershock, because it's after a bigger earthquake, but still

significant in itself. those aftershocks will continue for months, months at a time. so we're seeing finally, wolf, some planes in the air. a couple out of miami, one of out of dulles airport, so they are getting relief supplies in, telling us that at least some of the runways or one of the runways is available for planes to be landing. some good news. that plane from dulles i think is bringing rescue workers to deal with those folks who are still trapped. and there are thousands and thousands. just to remind our viewers, the prime minister of haiti told us hours ago he fears hundreds of thousa thousands may be dead or missing right now. we're going to continue our breaking news coverage. we're getting video courtesy of our ireports. we'll show you what we have.

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morning because my back hurt so bad.

this morning and promised the united states government, the american people will do whatever is possible to save the lives of people in haiti right now. let's go to our white house correspondent dan lothian. dan, the president is getting deeply involved in helping to coordinate this enormous u.s. relief operation. >> reporter: he really is. according to senior administration officials, the president's day has been one of shuttling back and forth between these high-level meetings with democrats on health care to get regular updates on haiti. earlier he got an update on the

u.s. ambassador to haiti, and i'm told the president will be getting an decisional update, details in about an hour or so. the president obviously realizing this is a global response taking place. the president of mexico, the prime minister of canada, also the u.n. secretary ban ki-moon trying to coordinate the efforts going into haiti, but clearly this administration showing it's very aggressive, trying to account for all the americans, 45,000 american citizens in haiti, about 172 of them work at the american embassy there, and we're told but official over the state department that all of them have been accounted for. there have been some injuries there, but certainly concerns not only for the american citizens there, but also the people of haiti going through this difficult time. >> we'll have the president's remarks coming up later. dan lothian, stand by.

it's very difficult to get communications going, photos come out from haiti, but we are getting d. josh levs, some of these pictures are dramatic. >> they are. this is part of the story today, wolf. we're talking about this huge crisis in haiti. at the same time we're talking about a new era in communications when social media are playing such a huge role in the world. behind me are some pictures by shared but karel pedre. he's gone to various sections of haiti. and some pictures from jonathan luma, who -- or rather lusma. this is from the southwest corner of haiti, where he traveled around. do you have those graphics? there you go.

let's look at these. where he is, is pretty far from port-au-prince. what's so striking, is that even at that distance, no matter where you are, we keep getting pictures from all over the country, seeing similar pictures of devastation from so many parts of haiti. destroyed buildings, and when you stop and really look at some of still photos. there are moments where you can feel the weight, the devastation, feel the tilting and crumbling that's horrified so many people and has trapped so so many there. all of it we're following here at cnn headquarters in atlanta. we've got our eyes on the social immediate dwra, twitter, facebook, and all our own blogs to get you the latest. >> folks all over the world, josh, are really word about that loved once. cnn is trying to help through cnn i-report. >> i've never seen anything like

that. basically ireport.com, people are posting photos, giving descriptions, where they last knew of these people to be. they're saying, please, let me know. people inside haiti, even amid this devastation have been managing to communicate, to specifically use ireport.dom, so there are cases in which people are responding, saying i'll like on the for your sister, for your mother, try to find them. not only are we doing it, facebook is doing it as well. a facebook group now hose 40,000 members on t. wolf, people doing something similar, sending photos of people they're worried about, saying please help me find this person. again social media amid this devastation, wolf, playing a very important role. >> we have at cnn.com/impact, impact your world, an opportunity for people to weigh in and get involved and help these people in haiti if they

wants to do so, go to cnn.com/impact. the ambassador of haiti is still here. he has to leave in a couple moments. it's amazing this outpouring, i'm sure you feel it, mr. ambassador. is there anything you want to tell our viewers here in the united states and around the world before you go back and deal with the state department, the defense department and others? >> one thing i want to say is that the haitian people are very hardy. we have gone through a lot of problems. when the hurricanes hit us, four hurricanes in three weeks, people said how are they going to go through this? in the past year and a half we were picking up the marbles, so to speak. now we're hit with this, and i told everyone, watch to see the kind of spirit that the haitians are going to show, because i've

been feeling this and the world should know that the haitians who won their independence over 200 years ago with the slogan "in unity there is strength" have reclaimed that slogan again in the past three years. >> well, we wish you only, only the best, that our heart goes out to everyone in haiti, our prayers as well, and, of course, everything we're trying to do whatever we can to help in this crisis. the numbers are simply stallering. we'll stay in close touch, mr. ambassador. >> i want to thank everyone for the solidarity with my country. i want to thank the united states government and the government of the dominican republic, government of brazil, that has come out right away to help us. venezuela, who were among the countries to respond very quickly. why? because 200 years ago, haiti was a country that isn't men to

liberate venezuela. take a look at this. these are live pictures you're seeing from haiti. this is videotape that was just fed in. they're distributing supplies at the airport in haiti, and folks are getting badly needed water and other replies. hopefully some of those planes contain many containers of emergency equipment and supplies and this rescue operation can really get going. mr. ambassador, thanks very much. retired u.s. army general russel honore is standing by to help. we're going back to port-au-prince to speak with our reporters who are on the scene, including anderson cooper, sanjay gupta. our breaking news coverage continues after this. to a well-equipped buick lacrosse. get inside each. and see what you find. if perfection is what you pursue, this just might change your course. meet the new class of world class.

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they're handing out supplies at the airport in port-au-prince in haiti. it is feared, according to haitian authorities, the prime minister of haiti telling cnn he fears hundreds of thousands may be dead. the ambassador here in washington, the haitian ambassador to the united states fears more than 100,000 are either dead or missing, supplies shortly we're told, hopefully in the next few hours will begin arriving. this is a desperate situation unfolding. our coverage is extensive. we have all of our resources on the ground now, including our own anderson cooper, sanjay gupta, susan candiotti. we're going back to port-au-prince in a moment, but i want to check in with deborah feyerick, she's monitoring some other top stories. what else is going on? >> thanks, wolf, the heads of four top bank facing scrutiny

today. the ceos testified for more than three hours in front of the commission investigating the financial crisis. much of the questions centered around bad lending in the housing market which one of the executives admitted a failed stress test. they didn't realize how big the mistakes were. also nigeria will allow armed marshals on flights from that country to the united states. nigeria's aviation minister says an agreement with washington also calls -- the man accused of trying to began its transatlantic journey at nigeria's largest airport. vigils were held outside the beijing offices of google after the company threatened to it says it's a victim of highly sophisticated hacking attempts to gain access to e-mail

accounts of chinese human rights activists. it says it will no longer censor search terms and may stop doing business there all together. a statement from the chinese embassy in washington says china supports a, quote, open internet. >> we'll check back with other news that's coming in, but i want to go to jill dougherty over at the state department. stand by for a moment. i know you're getting new information. we'll take a quick break and go to jill after this. i heard that from consumers digest. it offers better highway mileage than a comparable camry or accord. estimated 33 highway. i saw that on the epa site. so how come the malibu costs so little. it's a chevy. you have cop hair. the award-winning chevy malibu. compare it to anyone and may the best car win.

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we're continues our coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in haiti. over 100,000 may be missing, the prime minister of haiti telling our viewers that perhaps hundreds of thousands may be dead. the ambassador here in washington just saying moments ago more than 100,000 are feared dead or missing. jill dougherty is covering this story for us at the state department. that's where they're coordinating this massive u.s. relief operation, this rescue operation that's unfolding. a you're getting new information. what are you learning? >> hey, wolf, just a few minutes ago i was able to and talk to p.j. crowley. he's been giving a lot of briefings today. here's some of the latest stuff. the d.a.r.t. team, the disaster

assessment teams, they have 15 members, they are now on the ground they are trying to figure out locations where people need help the most. the search and rescue teams are arriving already. the one we remember we told you from fairfax, virginia, is already on the ground. miami and los angeles will be coming later. also he said there's teams coming in from britain and france. so there's going to be a sizable team on the ground over today and tomorrow the 45,000 americans that we've been reporting live in haiti, the embassy is still trying to get in touch with them. that's not an easy task, but so far no confirmed deaths. they have evacuated injured to guantanamo, and we are told there's 100 to 160 americans at the airport, they went there by themselves and have been hoechg to get out and they will.

we're told they will be evacuated by the end of the day, wolf. >> i know you're staying on top of this. good to hearing that some already are arriving. i want to show our viewers some new video that's just coming into the "the situation room" right now, aerial video showing port-au-prince. look at this massive city in haiti. it's a city of 2 million people, though the ambassador told us it was originally built for about 50,000 people. very crowded, the structures not strung at all. this is where most of the casualties are believed to have occurred in the capital of haiti in port-au-prince. our homeland security contributor fran townsend is here, she worked in the bush white house. russel honore, the retired army general is joining us. as all of our viewers remember, he was instrumental in getting help to the people of louisiana and new orleans after katrina.

when you look at this video, it brings back memories i'm sure of katrina, but this is a whole different kind of situation when you're talking about an earthquake. >> absolutely. and wolf, you know, the critical thing we're counting in hours now, not days, and every how you are we have slipped by and don't get the right assets on the ground, we are losing people's lives. you're correct, it is different than a flooding event, but in many ways it's the same. time is not on our side, and we need to move quickly to get medical equipment as well as food and water on the ground, and right now, wolf, the coast guard report, the port is closed, and they will have to put assets in there to open it. the coast guard is also flying out as we speak injured members from the u.s. embassy. they are flying them out on helicopters. the coast guard has the cutter forward on the ground and two more ships arriving this

afternoon. >> it's a difficult situation for the u.s. government to mobilize, fran. you were involved during your years in gov, and you understand the complexity, especially in a country as poor as haiti, a country of 9 or 10 million people, probably the poorest country in the western hemisphere. >> that's right, wolf. so probably one of the most immediate heart-wrenching challenges you have is accounting for the mittsing, injured and the dead. we heard the ambassador talk about that. they will look to the united states to help them sort through that. there are obviously haitian-americans here who are worried about their family members backs home. this is a really different challenge, especially giving the lack of communication, the infrastructure isn't available to us. >> is there a scenario usually in place in the u.s. government, all the career professionals, whether from a.i.d. or defense department, the coast guard, the state department, where they

would mobilize within hours to deal with a situation like this? or does it simply come out of the blue? >> no, it gets practiced even for international events. we saw the president name the head of usaid, and that's why you saw him called together the entire government. you need assets from the coast gua guard, as well as assets in the department of defense. so you need somebody to sort of quarterback, the orchestra conductor, if you will, to make sure the head of usaid is getting things he needs in a timely way and is able to deploy it. it will be a challenge. the other challenge we haven't talked about, wolf, is you need to also coordinate with the nongovernmental organizations like the red cross. the red cross needs dollars, they need it from americans who want to contribute and do something as money, so they can

make sure they gets the assets that the haitian people need there. >> general honore, you say these hours are critical, because there could be thousands of people still under rubble, but unless they get removed very, very soon, it's going to be too late for these people, and by all accounts, general honore, they don't have the equipment in haiti to remove these big boulders, the structures that may be on top of people right now. what can the u.s. government, the u.s. military specifically, do about this? >> well, first of all, i would come off script and put the military in charge of this operation. we have a four-star general in miami, that's his job, and have him work in collaboration with the state department. right now the d.o.d., the department of defense southern command is waiting on the state department to tell them what's needed. we need to change script here, put southern command in charge of this operation, and get that add general on the ground within

the next few hours and pull the command and control with him, so he can help usaid as well as work with the u.n. forces that are on the ground we need that general on the ground now. as we speak, the deputy for southcom is in port-au-prince. he was there on a visit, lieutenant general keane, when the event happened. so we get some command and control, and get some c-5s and c-41s and clismt of every-17s flying in with as much food and medical supplies, and that airport needs to be running around the clock. somebody will have to take charge of the airport. the good samaritans that went in today are doing great work, but the through-put that's needed in that airport needs the military command and control to run that and get the port open. >> right now the president has designated the head of a.i.d. to be his point person in charge of

the overall u.s. rescue and relief operation, but you just heard general honore say he would like the u.s. military commander, the head of the southern command, a four-stan general normally based in miami to take charge and let the u.s. military get this situation resolved. i'll talk about it with fran townsend in a little while. cnn, as you know right now, and you can rely on cnn is deploying its full resources to the disaster zone. anderson cooper was among the first tv journalists to arrive in haiti. just a little while ago, he filed this report. >> the situation in port-au-prince is stunningly -- i'm outside what remains of the national cathedral. it's hard to tell frankly it was the national cathedral. so much of it is just completely destroyed. we're a block away from the presidential palace, which many know by now has been severely

damaged. the human drama which is occurring here -- >> unfortunately i think we just lost that signal as well. the -- but anderson cooper will be joining us. he is on the ground, together with other reporters and producers, or camera crews, we're operating out of the haiti right now as only cnn can, and we can assure you we will get that information. dr. sanjay gupta, or chief medical correspondent is on the ground as well with anderson and others. listen to what sanjay reported just a little while ago. >> reporter: what are you doing at the airport? >> my palace collapsed. >> reporter: so you don't have a home? >> i came here to work, but they told me that i cannot work here, because it's not safe. so i'm going home. >> reporter: you're going to go back to your home. are you able to live in the

palace, or is it completely destroyed? >> i cannot live in the palace, i cannot live in my own house. the two collapsed. >> reporter: where are you going to go tonight? >> i don't know. >> reporter: it's striking, the president of this country doesn't know where he's going to sleep tonight. >> no. i -- i have plenty of time to look for a bed, but now i am working how to rescue the people. but sleeping is not a problem. >> reporter: well, what have you seen with your own eyes? how bad a situation is it? >> it's incredible. you have to see it to believe it. a lot of houses destroy ed, hospitals, schools, personal

homes, a lot of people in the street dead. >> reporter: you've seen this with your own eyes? >> the earthquake took place yesterday at 5:00, and i'm still looking for -- to understand the magnitude of the event. and how to manage. >> reporter: what is the worst thing -- what is the worst thing that you saw so far? >> people in the streets for two days now. we don't have the capacity to bring them to the hospital. >> reporter: i'm so sorry to hear that, mr. president. what do you need?

what does haiti need right now from the rest of the world? >> we have to first clean up the street. a lot of people they left their cars in the streets. they were afraid when the earthquake occurred. and there is a lot of garbages. cement in the street. so we have to clean up the street so the -- so the -- >> reporter: rescue workers? >> yes, so they can work. >> reporter: that's priority number one? >> yeah. number two. we'll have more of that interview that sanjay conducted with the president of nati, rene preval, sanjay gupta among our

team on the ground now in port-au-prince. chris lawrence is also in port-au-prince right now. you're at the international airport in port-au-prince. i take it a lot of people, understandably so, would like to get out -- unfortunately i think we just lost our connection with chris lawrence. we'll reconnect with him. just be patient with us, because this is a difficult situation, getting communications in and out of haiti under these circumstances not easy. it's been 24 hours now since the earthquake, and we're updating you. cnn's ivan watson is also among the team of cnn journalists who are there. he's joining us on the phone. ivan where are you? >> wolf, i'm in port-au-prince, at the entrance of an upscale hotel that has been turned into a makeshift hospital.

i cannot stress enough how much the medical facilities in this city have been overwhelmed by the vast number of victims in this earthquake. there's probably about 100 haitians laying around on the sidewalk here in the parking lot, sitting, laying in the wicker lawn furniture of this hotel. the owner of the hotel just told me that since the earthquake they have treated hundreds of people and they're not trained doctors. they just have some supplies, hotel sheets, and they're trying to take care of people with broken legs, lots of injuries here. at the end of this parking lot, again with hundreds of people, injured children here wailing around me, the bodies of at least four victims covered in sheets. nobody has come to pick them up. wolf, i have seen this at two other clinics within a mile and a half of here, other clinics completely overwhelmed, doctors say they don't have enough gas to keep the generators running

to provide the medical machines to treat the victims. they have victims in the hallways, in the sidewalks in front of the medical clinics. i've been seeing doctors treating people arriving, but carried on wooden doors with broken limbs. this city has been devastated, and there is simply not enough medical supplies or personnel to treat all of these people, wolf. >> it's a devastating situation. in all your years as a journalist covering disasters, have you seen anything like this before? >> reporter: i have to confess, no, i have not. i did not cover the tsunami in southeast asia. this is more that i've seen. bodies literally stacked up. 14 bodies i saw outside of one medical clinic. >> a woman sitting at the entrance of the clinic, she had a broken leg. she said she had been waiting there since the previous night for treatment. the woman next to her, her foot had been ripped off somehow in

the earthquake. they had been waiting from the previous day for some kind of medical treatment, laying next to the corpse of a baby covered in a sheet. conditions here are truly horrific. as you mentioned, it's only been 24 hours since this earthquake. >> it's hard to believe. all right. stand by, we're going to get back, it's gets dark in haiti as well, they're in the same time zone as the eastern part of the united states. ivan watson is there, we'll check back with chris lawrence, anderson cooper and our other reporters. we're standing by to speak live with a top official from president obama's national security council, denis mcdonough. we'll talk with him over at the white house and see what the president is up to, what other u.s. officials are up to. we're speaking with the family members of victims of those who have suffered as a result of this earthquake. our coverage will continue right after this.

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cnn's tom foreman is joining us with more on this. this story is heartbreaking. >> sure, wolf, and exactly what you're hearing today is -- there still remains a tremendous lack of information and a lot of confusion, an as all this help pours in from around this world on this island to help out, people are trying to gauge the size of the response and how they're going to be able to help. part of that depending on the number of casualties. the usgs has doing some absolutely brilliant work on all of this. they've expanded their mission over the years to do some wonderful things. i want you to look at this map. this is population density, mean how tightly packed are people here. the taller the cluck, the more people in the area. you see there's port-au-prince,

is this a try number of people. so the big concern is that it hit next to this area. that allows a formula to how many people probably were affected. even though they can't get down the roads, even though communications is a mess. so if we move in a little bit closer here again and i turn on a different map, you can look at what we call the shake map. the shake map will show you the entitiesities. much of the shaking has occurred this way, not this way. if i turn that one off and turn on the actual incidence of tremors since the original one. and look at this red one right here. that red one means it happened within the past hour. they're still getting hit, but away -- that said, here's what

you have to look at. if you move into port-au-prince proper, you start applies the math of that population density against the intensity of the hit. this is what we know right away. 3 million of people were subjected to pretty strong shaking. i wrote the words "weight of the roof" here, because that matters. you have to think about the idea the heavier the roof is, whether it's a one, two or three-story building, the greater the chance it will collapse down and kill the people inside. that's one of the real threats. in less strong buildings, some people may be better off. in the end these are the kind of number wires looking at, scientifically not just guessing, probably 1 to 10,000 people, and as terrible as that is, that would be a good outcome. 10,000 to 100,000 considered by

the people analyzing these numbers, very reasonable, and of course it could go above. we'll keep assembly the situational map all evening long, and we hope people will stay with us. >> tom foreman stand by. i want to go to the white house right now. denis mcdonough is joining us, the chief of staff over at the national security council. you've been meeting with the president and others, how will it take to for major quantities of u.s. relief and rescue operation, supplies to start getting into haiti? >> thanks a lot for the opportunity to join you, wolf. obviously as you've heard throughout the day starting with the president this morning, and from really last night, we're trying to dedicate all the resources of the government to move assistance capability down into haiti. we have more and more of that capability getting on the ground even now as we speak, and

obviously, as your former guest underscored, we're getting new information as the more we see here, and that's going to determine the amount of assistance we get. but the bottom line is this. we have experienced professionals, drawing on all of them from usaid, to the department of state to the department of defense, and obviously relying on the private volunteers throughout haiti, religious groups and others who have been helping haitians through the course of many decades. we feel like we're getting in a position to affect the outcome and send a real clear snag to the haitians and american citizens that we are ready to help. >> are you telling me that some aircraft, u.s. aircraft have already arrived, have landed in haiti with supplies and rescue operations? >> i'm telling you, wolf, that we've been able to get some capability on the ground to ensure that the landing strip itself will be able to withstand the amount of pressure we're going to put on it over the next

several days. we've been able to get some search and rescue professionals on the ground and to begin to move out from the airport to get some of this done. obviously we've been doing a lot of medevacing throughout the course of the day. u.s. government personnel and other american citizens who have suffered grave injuries as a result of the earthquake are now getting much better health care and attention than they otherwise might have been. i don't know about you, but i'm very proud of our military personnel who have done this, coast guard personnel who have gone in and gotten our fellow citizens out to get some care, and we're awful proud of that, but we've got a lot yet to do. >> i'm proud of the military all the time. denis, general honore, who was very much involved in helping people, he was sent into katrina in new orleans and louisiana, as you probably remember. he just told us he thinks it's a mistake from someone from a.i.d., the administrator, to be

in charge of coordinating this u.s. relief and rescue operation. he says a four-star u.s. general, the head of the u.s. military's central command based in miami, he should be in charge. what do you think about that idea? >> well, in fact, southern command, which has purview over haiti and all the countries of this hemisphere, has very closely involved. you saw general frazier, who is the four-star in charge of southern command, working very closely with raj shah. they gave a joint press conference today with cheryl mills, and they've been working together hand in glove. so i'm not -- i didn't have the benefit of hearing the interview that you had on your show, wolf, but what i do have the benefit of having seen is all the efforts that have gone into last night and today to get the folks down on the ground, to get supplied positioned, and i feel good about it, but look, we've got a lot of work to do, and

we're going to continue to demand more. let me tell you, having melt with the president, i have a very seen understanding of just how demanding he is of this effort, and we're going to try to meet his demands on it. >> i'm sure he's put the word out to everyone involved, do whatever is necessary to save the lives of people in haiti right now. very quickly, before i let you go, you've heard the prime minister say he fears hundreds of thousands may be dead. you heard the ambassador tell me he thinks more than 100,000 are either dead or missing, what is the u.s. government's estimates right now about the dead in haiti? >> we're not putting out any numbers. i just came from the president having as conversation with president lula of brazil and the president of chile. both of those countries have noted they suffered pretty significant losses over the course of the last day, but we've said it is significant, we're going to generate the

resources to address the situation, and obviously, as i suggested a minute ago, we're getting smarter the more we see across the country, and i think we'll be really to make a big impact. >> we're also hearing from p.j. crowley, the spokesman over at the state department, and denis, i hope you can elaborate, what he's saying is the u.s. citizens who are in port-au-prince or elsewhere in haiti right now should go to the airport if they want to be evacuated. the u.s. is getting ready to send in planes. is that what you want u.s. citizens who may be watching us right now in haiti, if in enact they have that capability, you want them to go to the airport? >> wolf, as i indicated earlier today, we have got in and medevaced out some severely wounded u.s. government personnel and some private american citizens. we are getting additional planes on the ground to be able to move out u.s. government personnel and private american citizens. so obviously there's information

about all this through american citizen services at the state department, and there is increasing direction and resources for precisely that purpose. so we are going to continue to work this, the president made clear this morning his number one priority is the safety and security of our american citizens down there, and we're following through on that. >> denis mcdonough is the chief of stat at the national security council. good luck to you and the men and women of the u.s. government, all the private organizations who are trying to do whatever they can to help save lives in haiti right now. thank you very much. >> thank you, wolf, i appreciate it. >> thank you very much, and tell the president we're watchic this story very closely. cnn is devoting an enormous amount of inferring right now. we have a full team of journalists on the ground right now. we'll be checking in with anderson cooper, sanjay gupta, chris lawrence, all our

reporters who are there. we're also getting stories from haitians about their search for loved ones, and we'll continue our breaking news coverage right after this.

i was having trouble getting out of bed in the morning because my back hurt so bad.

haiti earthquake is now 24 hours since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit haiti, a country of nearly 10 million people, 2 million in the capital of port-au-prince. one american who's in

port-au-prince is ansel hirsch, joining us via skype. i've been there for four months. walk us through what happened yesterday when you first felt that earthquake, and what has it been like over the past 24 hours? >> i was in high house that i share with haitians in a relatively poor neighborhood which is just below the wealthy suburb of pitchenville, and things started falling off the walls. we were worried the house was going to collapse. thankfully it didn't. it's one of the few multistory buildings in our area that did not collapse entirely. immediately i bestarted shooting footage and talking to people. stories that had more than one story collapsed entirely. i saw a man basically his body

was crushed and he was dead. people were wailing in the streets. we felt aftershocks after that. so then over the past 24 hours i've been in the street and made my way downtown. many buildings are collapsed including the palace, many of the parliament and ministry buildings as well. also the headquarters of the u.n. peace keepers, their office buildings yu collapsed entirely. so a lot of their administrative personnel i think have died. they were just beginning the rescue effort last night around 10:00 p.m. after darkness had fallen. they were just starting to try to pull people out from the rubble. in the streets, people are trying to stay away from walls and buildings and their homes, basically everybody is outside

trying to stay safe and not be crushed by falling debris, and i also witnessed many acts of solidarity among haitians who are basically in the absence of any official relief effort from the government or from aid agencies, they're just -- and pick axes, you know, i saw the national cathedral had collapsed. there were about a dozen men pulling out a woman from a squished wall. so i think all of that is ongoing. >> i know, ansel, you recently graduated from the university of texas in austin, you studied journalism. i take it i've been in haiti now for four months. is that correct? >> yes, i got here at the end of september. >> when you see what's happened over the past 24 hours, you hear

these statements who may have died in this aftermath, based on the neighborhoods you've walked through today, does that seem realistic? we're all praying that number is way too high. >> i heard the number 100,000. i don't know how many multiple thousands of people who have died. that's the first time i've heard that the prime minister had said that, because in the streets i hadn't heard anything really from government officials. there's really nobody out there coordinating, at least when i was out in the streets, downtown, and cite soleil there's nobody telling anyone the official estimates. so i can't say precisely, but certainly it's a catastrophe.

>> ansel hold on for a moment. chris lawrence, our correspondent, is over at the airport. you have a guest who's got new information. tell our viewers what's going on. >> reporter: we're here at the airport. the sun is just about setting now, i'm here with mario anderson, he's the chief the police for the country of haiti. can you please tell all our viewers, the people who are watching perhaps around the world, what is the security situation right now in port-au-prince and throughout haiti? >> it's very bad. the men's prison has been broken last night, and we have a million prisoners escape from the prison, and security is different for the police to be

in control of the situation. beside that, you have the global situation with people living any streets, you see what i mean? and i think we need help here. >> reporter: you're saying the pen tench area suffered damage in the earthquake. roughly how many prisoners do you think are still out there? >> may a thousand, a thousand around, because we are -- all the bad guys last few years, but today they are out, and i think we'll have to do it again. >> reporter: that is an incredible situation to hear you say that on the air, so say the penitentiary was damaged to the point. what about also the problem with ban duties, with people who

would prey on others in a situation like this? >> we start receiving reports that bad guys, they are around, and they start, you know -- you know, by night. so now we are counting our injuries, you know -- and there's 200 officers down there. also, the men -- the palace and the parliament, and -- >> what is the danger right now for all of these families that we see here and the families that i saw driving around port-au-prince, who have no home to go to, they don't have anywhere else to do but be out here on the street. what do you suggest they do

tonight? >> tonight, you know, it's going to become worse. you know, tonight -- and some of them, and call other people -- >> all right. we just lot that communication with chris lawrence, speaking with that chief of police there at the airport. it's a worrisome situation, as nightfall begins to come upon haiti right now. we have a lot more coverage coming up. we're not leaving this story, a story that is so demanding, but our team is on the ground right now, and we'll bring you all of it. stand by, our continues coverage will resume after this. cc

time for a tune-up? come to meineke now for maintenance tune-ups... starting at $39.95. at meineke, you're always the driver. susan candiotti is on the ground. i take it you've just felt some aftershocks? unfortunately i think we've lost our connection with susan. we'll reconnect with her. we've got our whole team of reporters now on the ground. we're going to be talking with anderson cooper momentarily, susan candiotti, as i just said, dr. sanjay gupta, chris lawrence, gary tuchman, ivan watson, jonathan mann. we're watching this unfold. fran townsend is here, the homeland security contributor who knows a lot about these

situations. she worked in the bush white house. brian todd is here as well. the stories that are coming out are pretty heart wrenching. >> and a lot have to do with american citizens oregon. no specification breakdown of what they are doing there, some are with aid organizations, with charities on the ground. many could have dual u.s./haitian citizen ships, so they're kouranted among the americans. right now no confirmed deaths of americans, but some, including eight people with the embassy, were injured. we're getting reports from all over the u.s., people desperately looking, to hear word about their loved ones. ben aamazing story. jillian thorpe was trapped underneath a three-story house that collapsed. from the rubble she made a skype call to her husband. we had a guy on skype just a moment ago. she was able to make a call on

skype to her husband, frank thorpe, who was in another part of haiti, about eight hours away. he drove through the night to get to her. other workers at that mission in the meantime started to dig through the rubble. jillian thorpe's father picks it up from there. >> by the time frank got there, which was probably close to 3:00 in the morning, they had started to see a bit of jill. they couldn't see her face, they could see one hand waving, and they were able to talk. with a little more digging frank actually lifted her out of wreckage. >> clay cook says his daughter is okay, she's not seriously injured, but an official with the mission, says a local employee had both of her legs crushed. we're going to hear these stories throughout the coming days, as experts say the first 24, 48 hours, unfortunately we're halfway through that window. >> you say a lot of the americans are dual citizens, but a lot of these americans are

down there work for relief organizations. >> that's right, we're getting reports of a lot of these organizations continuing to work while they're still looking for people. they're trying to get word out to loved ones, communication is very, very spotty, and just word of what these relief organizations are doing, they've got a dual mission, they've got to help people on the ground, try to find their own people, and they're not able to quite do that, all in one spot. >> fran, you've coordinated these kinds of situation. these private organizations do a lot as well. >> we realized in the wake of katrina, the government can't expect it's going to do the whole job. what it can do is help coordinate between the private organizations. so it's critically important that those private organizations have the resources they need. the government can help them with communications gear, logistics, help them get supplies in, but what the

private organizations, need, wolf, is cash. they need to be able to purchase the appropriate resources and move them. that's where the coordination with the government agencies comes in. that's critically important to get the sort of medical assistance, food and water that you heard general honore talk about earlier. they're the angels on the ground that can put this in the hands of the people who desperately need it right now. >> if it consider were you, would you put a general in charge o. are or the head of a.i. dishes? >> the distinction is who coordinates the logistics on the ground. i think on the ground, i think the general is right, a four-star general that has the command and control, the communications, the ability to move logistics, and who's responsible here in washington? that does make sense to have it. denis mcdonough used the phrase "hand and glove" that's the critical people.

>> stand by, guys, joining us on the phone from florida is jimmy joseph, desperately seeking information on five relatives missing in haiti. >> what have you heard? so far nothing. i've got trying to call since last night. i've called all the numbers, and nobody ever answered. so i'm really worried. >> your family i take it lives in pour aprince? >> that is, 15, 20 minutes away from the airport. >> phone connections are very, very hard. have you established phone connections with others? >> no. i tried all. >> i called my friends, i had

them try to call family members, nothing answered. so i'm not sure if they're ali. i'm praying they're all alive, but i'm really worried. >> who specifically are you looking for? >> i'm looking for my sister and her his and four of her kids. >> so there's six individuals. you have some pictures that you have made available. i want to show our viewers to some of the pictures. >> who is this? >> i'm not in front of tv. my sister's name is yolin, and her father's name is foster. stephanie is right now in the dominican republic -- she went to medical school in the dominican republic. i have her customeren, my

brother-in-law, a niece. >> also my nephew steve, so i don't know the whereabouts right now. >> we're worried, too. we'll be prays together with you. there's hundreds of thousands of haitian-americans who are in the same situation right now, trying to establish contact with loved ones. >> this was obviously a very, very complicated situation, communication with haiti very, very difficult right now. the breaking news will continue right after this.

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we'll head back to the international airport in port-au-prince. chris lawrence, but he's there on the screen for us. you're getting new information about efforts to help americans, about 40,000 or so americans who are in haiti right now. what are you picking up, chris? >> reporter: this information is going to be tremendously useful. not only to the american citizens who are here in haiti trying to get home, but their families back in the united states and perhaps around the world, who are watching, wanting to know if any help is on the way. we learned from the embassy there were be two flights tomorrow, one at 9:00 a.m. and another at noon that will fly american citizens from here back to santo domingo in the dominican republic.

from there we're told they will be met by embassy personnel who will assist them in trying to get either hotel reservations if they need to stay a night or two there in santo domingo, or to coordinate changing their original flights into a flight that would get them back home to the united states. >> we're told that the process by which they'll work they'll come to the airport, they'll have to i'm a promissory note. that will get them to santo domingo. then another flight to get home to the united states, they will sign another promissory note. when this information came out just a couple seconds ago, tremendous sigh of approval went up, but there's a big caveat. we're told that there is 100 seats, about 100 seats on each of these flights. that's about 200 seats. just from walking around here, i estimate there are a lot more than 200 united states citizens

who would like to get back to america as soon as possible, wolf. >> you can't blame them. i'm sure more planes will be on the way. this is just the start. it's getting dark where you ri. give us a little sense of the mood among the folks who have come to the airport hoping to get out of haiti. >> well, it is definitely taking on a more worry tone, i guess in the last half an hour to hour, and not only because of the darkness, but there are big storm clouds, and we have started to see a few sprinkles of rain, and i think i told you earlier that a lot of people are out here on the street. they don't have blankets or any place to get cover and one gentleman from florida told us that it was pretty darn cold out here last night. he slept out here all last night with the family, but some good news. you can see behind me that some of the lights have come on at least part of the airport here. there is a-of the airport that is still completely dark.

but some of the lights have just come on now for about the first time since we have been here. that is a good sign, and what we have heard from the embassy, about two flights leaving tomorrow, and again one at 9:00 a.m. and one at noon starting to take the first american citizens back home to the united states, wolf. >> good news for the americans, and there are so many haitian-americans right now in the united states who are so worried about their loved ones we will speak with some of them right after this. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.

you can only imagine what a terrible time it is for the haitians living in the united states seeing the devastation with little they can do about it. cnn's mary snow is in brooklyn

now and she has been talking to haitian-americans living there, and mary, what are they saying? >> well, wolf, there are thousands and thousands of haitian immigrants in this community, and just about everywhere you turn, you will see someone desperate for information. many people want to help, but at this point, they say they just don't know what to do. >> reporter: at an office that usually handles immigration issues for haitians the phones rang constantly with people asking for information, any information about their families in haiti. when haiti's prime minister initially told cnn that there may be hundreds of thousands of deaths, it was more than andrei leflore could take. she cannot reach her mother and two brothers in port-au-prince, and she is praying as she watches the devastation. >> i hope that if my family is watching the tv in haiti, and trying to call us, and let us know what is going on, because we are so worried, because we

don't have the news, nothing. >> reporter: her coworker rachael pierre keeps monitoring her facebook page where she is monitoring the wreckage. she can't count how many times she has tried to call her parents and brothers and sisters in haiti since tuesday night, and she doesn't know what to do next. >> i don't know. i just don't know. shock. i'm shocked. >> reporter: while the women wait on word, a man walked in to volunteer to go to haiti to help. >> if you want me to go right now, i am going. >> reporter: not far from the brooklyn neighborhood, this is a radio hub which is simulcasting a radio station from haiti when they can. mr. dupre is the station manager. >> no hurricane katrina, or earthquake even a 1.0 on the richter scale, but a 7.0 on the richter scale, this is unthinkable, unimaginable, and

when this is over, it will be something that nobody can imagine. >> reporter: this catholic priest from haiti says that now part of his job for the community is to stay strong. >> usually when a disaster happens and you are not down there on the ground to know exactly what is happening, the fear is the worst. your fear will be the worst happen until you get the word that it is okay, then you can calm yourself down. >> reporter: wolf, they have been flooded with the calls at the radio station with nowhere else to turn. they are hoping that reporting missing ones, that i will be reconnected with missing loved ones. we were just in there and it is becoming overwhelming for people answering the phones. wolf? >> what a heartbreaking situation that the haitians are in right now. they are so desperate to get word from the loved ones in haiti, but it is almost impossible to do so. we will watch this very, very closely. i want to go back to ansel who

is the recent graduate from the university of texas who is in port-au-prince who is joining us via scape. ansel, it is getting dark there in port-au-prince, and you have been living there watching what is has been going on, and you have had a chance to walk around, but are you worried right now about your own personal safety? >> to be honest, i'm really not. i'm right across from the u.s. embassy, so i could go over there and spend the night if i needed to. but i have lived with haitians and we have moved to a relative's house, because the house we were in is a little bit shaky. i wanted to respond to something that was said earlier by the chief of police talking about the bandits escaping from the national penitentiary. i was there this morning actually, and i could describe the scene a little bit for you. basically, the roof of the

penitentiary seemed to have just disappeared. collapsed in on itself, and people could freely walk in and out of the prison. there were no officials, no police there of any kind, and i went inside of the prison and actually looked like there had been a fire, and it was entirely empty. so that the prisoners have either all escaped or and this is unconfirmed rumor, but i did hear of some people saying that the police had shot system of the prisoners as they were trying to escape last night shortly after the earthquake. just in terms of my safety, you know, i was warned a few times last night about potentially going into dangerous areas, but i did go into downtown after dark and i saw no violence of any kind and i stuck with different people who offered to help me. i think that haiti has a reputation for being a violent place, when in reality, it is some of to lowest crime rates in the region in the caribbean. so, i hope that people just aren't too alarmed by the

situation. i think that a lot of the haitians are dealing with this in an entirely peaceful way. again, myself, i have not witness ned any violence. >> ansel, standby. >> this is cnn breaking news. jill dougherty is over at the state department getting clarification from the officials at the state department. what are you learning, jill? >> yes, wolf. this is very important. the state department an hour ago said that if americans, that the embassy was sending a message to americans that if they wanted to be evacuated from haiti, they should go to the airport. that is not correct. there is a clarification. and this is coming from deputy press secretary gordon duguid, and he is sthag the american embassy is working on evacuation plans for americans, and that is airport is being evaluated as a possible evacuation route, but right now they are encouraging

americans to seek shelter, avoid damaged structures can, obey instructions from the local authorities and stay in a safe place until further notice, and the priority in all of this will be injured americans. so, again, the airport is being evaluated as an evacuation point, but at this point, americans should stay in the safe place until further notice. wolf. >> we are just hearing from your producer, elise labbitt that the secretary of state hillary clinton has decided to cut short her trip to the asia pacific region and she was on the way, and she is coming back to washington to help coordinate this u.s. government response to this enormous tragedy that is unfolding in haiti right now. this is new information, jill. give us some perspective for the secretary of state to decide to come back to washington. this is very significant. >> it is, wolf. this is a huge trip about ten days, and she was supposed to be

out of the country in asia and pacific region talking to very important countries -- australia and new zealand who are real partners of the united states. she has been on the phone, and coordinating with the certainly state department, and the task force meeting here at the state department, but for her to cut short, that is very, very significant. originally, they thought she would be able to handle it and there were briefings, et cetera, but she is coming back. the enormity of this tragedy is daunting. it is on everybody. it is very, very strong. today, in fact, wolf, she said that it wasn't really clear how, what kind of plan they were going to have, and you can see she believes she needs to be back here. >> and i assume they have established a command center there with the usaid, and working around the clock to not only deal with the u.s. citizens

in haiti, be tow deal with the enormous humanitarian crisis that has developed. >> absolutely, both. it is dealing with the u.s. citizens there who need to either get out or be helped or be found. then it is also this enormous rescue mission, search and rescue mission. as we have been reporting, there are teams coming from the united states, and at least one team, search and rescue is on the ground, and preceding them there was a d.a.r.t., disaster assistance team, evaluating where they should exactly go, so when they hit the ground, they can get to the buildings that the people need help. by the way, this is growing around not only the u.s. having teams in there and the british and the french will have teams. one of the big things is to get them into the airport, but this is already now that we have teams on the ground going out. wolf. >> jill dougherty is over at the state department, and as we say the breaking news coming in that the secretary of state is

cutting short her visit to the asia pacific region, australia and new zealand to come back to washington to deal with the haiti crisis. also, the state department telling americans who are in haiti right now, stay put. don't go to the airport. wait for further instructions. in is a dramatic development that is unfolding right now. chris lawrence, the pentagon correspondent is at the airport in port-au-prince. just moments ago, he filed this report. >> reporter: well, the mood shifted as the sun went down here at the airport. we saw a lot of people getting a lot more worried and starting to go over into certain corners and gathering together. there is a feeling that maybe this feeling of goodwill will not last through the night as people get more and more frustrated, and lot of folks told us they slept outside all last night after running for their lives. it was cold outside, and some of them say they have not had anything to drink or eat since the earthquake hit, but a lot of the u.s. citizens got some

welcomed news in that the embassy is now chartering two flights on thursday from here in port-au-prince to santo domingo in the dominican republic, and one will leave at 9:00 in the morning and the other at noon. they will each carry about 200 u.s. citizens to santo domingo and there will be u.s. embassy personnel there to help greet them and make arrangements and coordinate some sort of travel to immediately return home. that is welcomed news not only to the americans who are here, but their families back home. the one caveat to that, this is only the beginning of the flights, and we can tell you that there are a lot more 200 americans who want to get home. there are more like thousands. chris lawrence, cnn, port-au-prince, haiti. indeed. the most recent estimates say about 40,000 american citizens are in haiti right now. earlier in the day, the

president, president barack obama made it clear this is priority number one, saving lives in haiti. >> this is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share. with just a few hundred miles of ocean between us, and a long history that binds us together, haitians are our neighbors in the americas, and here at home. so, we have to be there for them in their hour of need. despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, i would encourage those americans who want to support the urgent humanitarian efforts to go to white house.gov where you can learn how to contribute. we must be prepared for difficult hours and days ahead as we learn about the scope of the tragedy. we will keep the victims and their families in our prayers. we will be resolute in our response, and i pledge to the people of haiti, that you will have a friend and partner in the united states of america today, and going forward.

may god bless the people of haiti and those working on their behalf. >> we are told by his advisers, and aides that he is determined to make sure that all aspects, all elements of the u.s. government do whatever it takes to save lives in haiti right now. the numbers from the haitian officials are simply heart wrenching. the prime minister of haiti suggesting that more than 100,000 people may have died in the earthquake. the ambassador of haiti to the united states telling me just a little while ago, he, too, fears 100,000 are dead or missing. we are standing by to speak with the former president of the united states, bill clinton, the united states special envoy to haiti. our breaking coverage continues in "the situation room" right after this.

this is cnn breaking news. let's get right to the former president of the united states, bill clinton. he is the united nations special representation for haiti. i know this is a subject, a country that the haitian people are very close to your heart, mr. president, and give us the latest information, what you are hearing from the united nations, from the u.s. government, your other sources in haiti about how devastating this situation is.

>> well, first of all, wolf, it appears that an enormous percentage, maybe as many as one-third of the country have been adversely affected by it. we don't know how many people are dead yet. at last count we had pulled ten survivors out of the united nations headquarters which you know was in a five-story hotel that completely collapsed. we know there are fatalities, but we don't know how many, and that is the same for the people throughout the island. we have lots and lots of people with missing family members, and we just have to keep hoping that we will have more rescue teams down there. the united states sent more today and china sent one, and russia is sending a big helicopter or two tomorrow, and people from all over the world are trying to help, but it is a devastating problem. last night the streets of port-au-prince were littered with wounded people sleeping and

the bodies of those who had perished. we are going to have i think another three or four really hard days of just clearing through the rubble to find the living and those who have died. >> these numbers we are hearing are devastating, mr. president. the prime minister of haiti suggesting that more than 100,000 people may have been killed in tertquake, and the ambassador of the united states to haiti told me the same thing a moment ago, and are these numbers realistic? because they seem so high. >> they do seem high. if you think about the population of port-au-prince and the surrounding area in excess of 2 million, 100,000 would be about 5%. what i am hoping is that when they clear the rubble away, they will find out more people have survived these collapsing buildings than we think. we just don't know. but one of the things that we

are worried about is that some people will die from exposure, from dehydration, from their injuries who could be saved which is why getting the search and rescue teams in there is so important and why for all of the good intentions that people have, it is very important to realize that we are going through about a week here, and maybe ten days to two weeks where the critical needs are very simple, food, water, shelter, first aid supplies. and for that, the most important thing that you can do is not to send those supplies, but send cash either to the red cross and we have sihave sent my special office has set up that anybody who sends us money, we will move it into the supplies quickly. meanwhile, we have a u.n. office

that has been devastated, but we are reconstituting it. mr. annabi is going back down, there and the secretary of state, and the un ashgs d aaid will move as quickly. it is devastating, and we don't have good cell phone coverage, and we are doing the best to get the communications and the logistics set up, but you will see an awful lot of progress in a couple of days. but i am grateful for everyone who wants to help, but right now we have to save as many lives as possible, and that means more than anything else, we need water, food, first aid supplies and shelter. with ethink that -- we think w shelter, and we have to equip it now.

>> when i spoke to raymond joseph, the ambassador from the united states to haiti, he said even if you could get the big planes to land in port-au-prince, the roads may not be drivable or usable and you could not get the trucks to deliver the badly needed supplies or the search and rescue equipment out there to remove the rubble. how worried are you about this? >> very. that is why we need more helicopters. minustah had only seven helicopters and the united states are supplying more and the russians are sending in two big transport helicopter, but we can use the helicopters where the roads are impassable. the other thing i would say is that the haitian government did buy some good dirt-moving equipment with a grant they got from venezuela, but we have to make sure it is in the port-au-prince area, and the dominican republic is doing a lot of construction and they

have equipment to be moved over and the c-130 transport planes can bring debris and earth-moving equipment from further away. it will take a day or two, but we can do it. meanwhile, you have people digging by hand through the rubble desperately trying to find folks still alive. that is why i said what we need now unless you can provide search and rescue or you have a medical team, we just need these basic supplies, because we have a terrible water shortage. a food shortage that the u.n. can ameliorate to a certain extent, but we need more first aid supplies. even with the medical facilities at the airport and my deputy, dr. paul farmer, who has a huge operation there, in a lot of places in haiti, they don't have aspir aspirin. we need to get the aid in there. >> what did you learn from the tsunami in thailand, and the

hurricane katrina and the knowledge to be dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake in haiti? >> well, i think that what we learned was for example -- let me give you an example in the tsunami where i worked hard for two years. we had a wonderful disparate group from sri lanka who immediately wanted to send supplies, because they knew people had lost everything in the tsunami, but they sent the supplies before we had the infrastructure and the logistics to be built up to distribute them and a lot of the supplies were lost on the tarmac at the columbo airport after the tsunami. when the four hurricanes hit here in 2008, there was a general sense that while everybody was forthcoming with help, we had not coordinated the work of the people on the ground in haiti with the american military well enough and we hadn't focused enough on the

basics of water and food and first aid and shelter. so that is why i am insistent tonight, to do the first things first and get through the first two weeks and then do what is necessary to help people recover and sustain themselves while they are recovering, and there has to be close coordination between the united states military and any other military asset wes have and the command on the ground by the brazilian, and these people have done a great job, and so far i am impressed that the work that the united states military has done with the minustah forces. we are absorbing the lessons in the tsunami and katrina and dealing with the hurricane season in haiti two years ago. >> mr. president, people all over the world are watching right now, and we are being seen on cnn and cnn international in more than 240 countries, and speak first to leaders around the world what you want them to do to help and then speak from your heart to individuals who

are simply shaken by what is going on in haiti right now. >> well, first to, the leaders, i would say, if you have already made a commitment in one of the donor conferences, you need to check and see whether or not you have fulfilled that, and most countries are way behind on fulfilling it, and i would urge you to fulfill the commitment as soon as possible. if you can provide any of that emergency help or or give us helicopters or basic medical supplies and we need that. but, remember, this is going to be a long-term process. haiti has an economic development plan that the government and the people have embraced. the rest of us are just helping them to implement it. i would urge you not to give up on haiti as a lost cause, because we can get through this and it is even more important now that we honor the wishes of

the haitian people and the government to help become their partners and liberate them from 200 years of misery. they can still do it. but first things first. we have got to care for the survivors, identify those who have died and reunite them with their families and deal with the basic families. to individuals, i would tell you that these are good people. yes, haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere, and yes, 70% of the people or more live on less than $2 a day, and yes, a long and tortured history, but they are good people, and survivors and intelligent and thrive in the disparate communities and they desperately want to reclaim the country and give ate better future and they need your help now. a lot of us at the u.n., we believe in them. and a lot of us today are pretty low, because we know that some of our colleagues have died, because they believed in haiti.

these people deserve a chance to bury their dead, to heal their wounded, to eat, to sleep, to begin to recover, and they can't do it just with the government help alone. they need you, too. if you can give $1, or $5 or $10. you can send it to clintonfoundation.org/haitiearth quake or send it to unicef or to c.a.r.e. or the red cross or red crescent, and we will get the money out, and little donation add up to big amounts. in the asian tsunami with 250,000 people died americans gave $1 billion and the median contribution was $56. half of the people gave it over the internet, and that was five years ago. $5 or $10 can make a huge difference. these people are just like you, and they are hurting now. there are people missing their spouses, children, brothers and sisters and parents, and we are going to save as many of them as

we can. with your help, we are going to help them begin again. >> well said, mr. president. thanks so much. i know that haiti is very close to you, and not just in recent years. i traveled with you to haiti back in the '90s when you were president of the united states. >> yes. >> and i remember that trip, and i remember seeing you up close during that stay in haiti and i know that all of these years later, haiti is very, very special to you. >> well, you remember, wolf, hillary and i went to haiti on a delayed honeymoon trip in december of 1975. and she has been so upset about this that she's doing everything she can do at state with the aid and we have loved that place for a long time and we think that the people have gotten a raw deal time and time again, and they keep coming back, and they will come back again if people will see them as their fellow human beings. they are hurting, but they are good people, and they need our

help. >> mr. president, thanks very much for what you are doing, and thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> i want to alert our viewers as well, if you want to help and i think you do, you can also go to cnn.com/impact, and we have an impact your world segment there, and you can get information on how to make a contribution and offer your services to help these people in haiti right now. this is a crisis, and an enormous crisis. people all over the world have to get involved and help. our coverage will continue right after this. a guy named his own price, wants a room tonight for 65 dollars.

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eat right. exercise. garlique. we continue to breaking news coverage from haiti, and the afsh math of the earthquake. our reporters are on the scene. we will go there in a moment, and let's check in with deborah feyerick who is monitoring the other top stories in "the situation room." what else is going on, debra? >> well, the suburban club in philadelphia is being sued because the swim club claims they would not allow a group of children swim there because of their race. the club says race had nothing to do with barring the campers last summer, but there were too many children for the lifeguards to safely monitor. and president obama and other top congressional senators are working on the health care

hill. harry reid and senate leader nancy pelosi is trying to hammer out to final details of the bill. they still hold out hope that the president's efforts for a health care bill don't collapse. the ceos of morgan stanley, goldman sachs and jpmorgan chase, and bank of america testified for more than three hours in front of commission investigating the banking crisis. much of it centered around lending in the housing market, and one critic said they failed to stress test, and they said they had made mistakes, but they didn't realize how big they were at the time. nigeria will allow armed american air marshals on flights from that country to the united states. the ministry says that they call for u.s. to also train nigerian

air marshals. the man accused of trying to blow up a plane from nigeria to detroit did travel through nigeria. and internet giant google had threatened to pull out of china. google says they are the victim of a highly sophisticated hacking attempts to get into the accounts of chinese activists. china says they will no longer censor, and china says they welcome an open internet. quote, unquote. we are become to port-au-prince to get the latest. to get the latest, our correspondents are on the ground. we will have more breaking news out of haiti after this. ( music playing )

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>> it is a grim situation in haiti right now. a country of some 10 million people, and 2 million in port-au-prince, and the word is that the casualties and the death enormous right now. we don't have precise numbers and only what the prime minister of haiti told us could be hundreds of thousands of people dead and the haitian ambassador to the united states said more than 100,000 are believed to have died or missing right now. tom foreman is here with more perspective on what is going on. what are you picking up, tom?

>> well, wolf, it is hard to calculate the people who may have been killed or wounded from this. as aid flows in from around the world, they need to know the numbers, because without them, they don't know how much to send or where to put it. let's look at port-au-prince, and some spectacular work done by the u.s. geological survey. this is a graph called population density, and the tall ter spire is, the more people there are, and you can see how enormously port-au-prince dominates the area near the actual earthquake there, and fortunately as the quakes have followed afterward, they have spread over these hits. that one there is one that occurred in the past hour. you can see it is more than six mile s deep, but they are tracking this at the usgs and they are telling us where the greatest need is and where the greatest potential damage has been done. if we move in closer, i want to show you some estimates here. we know that roughly one-third of the country, 3 million people were subjected to pretty strong

shaking by combining the earthquake data with the population data and we know that the weight of the roof is important, because the bigger and heavier of the roof, the more likely it will hit somebody and kill them on the way down. so fatality estimates based on science is very broad, but 1 in 10,000 people, and if that is what died, it is considered sure thing that it is reasonable, and reasonable to talked about up to 100,000, but wolf, we are expending out to the airport. because the simple truth as you watch for it the next two days, what you need to watch out here is the coast in the harbor and the airport, because thee are the primary areas in which help flows through here, and the things that president clinton was talking about, right now, this is the primary staging area, and the u.s. military is trying to get in there and make sure that the airport can run efficiently and effectively and we know that all sorts of buildings all over town have been knocked down and just as

importantly as the president was talking about, we know that many, many, many of the roads that lead through the town have been closed by debris and by wreckage that has fallen into it, and frankly by the simple fact that you have millions of people living in the streets, because their homes are no longer safe. the first order of business, and this is essentially a line of attack and i said we are going to be building a situational awareness there, but it is to get the roads open, and get basic medical care, basic services, and basic search and rescue out here to assess the situation, but that could take days. this is the plan of attack, coming from the airport and the coast to open up those roads and figure out where the help can go. wolf. >> it is an emore mounormous lo challenge, but i know that many governments around the world want to help, but to distribute the supplies and get the

emergency rescue and equipment on the ground is not going to be easy by any means. we just heard -- you heard the breaking news that the secretary of state hillary clinton has canceled her trip to australia and new zealand and elsewhere in the pacific and asia region, and she is coming back to washington to coordinate the relief operation for haiti. cnn's michael holmes is over at the cnn desk, and what else are you picking up, michael? >> well, wolf, the piece you will see in a couple of minutes or a minute or so is hard to watch. i want to warn people about that, because it is one of the few packages, if you like that, we have received so far. 24 hours ago this all started, and we started here at the assignment desk, the international desk, sending crews to haiti a variety of ways, planes and helicopters. you have talked to some of the people on the ground, and ivan watson is one of them. literally minutes ago i was told that one of the pieces have come in and we have looked at it, and it is unbelievable and he was at

a makeshift medical clinic in port-au-prince. powerful stuff. have a look. >> reporter: this is the reality of the situation here in port-au-prince. this is the small medical clinic. there are so many patients, so many victims of the earthquake, that they are treating them in the halls and in the entryway of the clinic. and look here. we have wounded people waiting for treatment right now. let's take a look at this woman right here. [ speaking foreign language ] >> this is amalika. she says that her leg is broken, and she has been here since last night, waiting for treatment, and she is not the only one if we come to take a look over here. there are more wounded people and even the corpse of a small child who could not yet get treatment. and it is just overwhelming to

see over here the bodies of at least 13 people stacked up on the sidewalk right outside. we have seen these images elsewhere in this overwhelmed city right now. doctors are telling me, they don't have enough medicine to treat these patients. they don't have enough gas to run the generators to trun medical machines to treat these patients and the people of port-au-prince are out in the streets and not in their homes for fear they, too, could become victims of the earthquake if the aftershocks bring down what is left of their homes. ivan watson, cnn, port-au-prince, in haiti. >> yeah, difficult to watch indeed, wolf. i have been watching, that and it arrived literally in the last 20 minutes or so. what he is saying there is, too, important to note. in a place like haiti which had problematic infrastructure to begin with, what this earthquake has done is to damage all of the

treatment places they did have and even doctors without borders, their three main clinics in port-au-prince damaged, the hospital, damaged. so, those people have no one to treat them in many cases. wolf? >> michael, this is a devastating situation, but it seems and correct me if you disagree, but it seems that the news we are getting keeps getting worse and worse. >> yeah. absolutely. that is what we are seeing, too. we are seeing that we are still getting a lot of material on facebook and the like. one thing i have noticed here in the last couple of hours, the number of people who are posting the ireport.com are asking the people, have you seen my wife? husband? father? niece? it is really heart breaking to watch. it started off just a matter of hours ago with people saying, have you seen someone, but now we have 60 pages on that website of people posting photographs and saying, have you seen this person? there are so many people missing and the damage and the photos we

are getting in and the more video from our own crews shows the extent of the damage and the magnitude of what happened. port-au-prince basically crumbled. >> a city of 2 million people under normal circumstances. those buildings are not sound or structurally sound to begin with, and obviously, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake with a lot of aftershocks and some 5.9 and 5.5 certainly causing extraordinary death and destruction in haiti right now. we are going to go back to port-au-prince in just a moment, continue our coverage, speak with survivors and check in with our reports and cnn's coverage of the earthquake in haiti continues after this. ♪

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morning because my back hurt so bad.

there are so many heartbreaking stories that have occurred in haiti over the past 24 hours, and let's speak with the father of someone who was in haiti during this. we are being joined by mark from boise, idaho, and your daughter has been in haiti for a while, and she was caught in the earthquake and pick up the story and tell us what you saw, because you spoke with her. >> okay. she was actually there just since the first of the year visiting a friend of hers who is a volunteer from friends of the orphans down there, and she was working with orphans. she is studying physical

therapy. yesterday afternoon, they returned to the residence which is, i guess it used to be a hospital, father wassan's center which is the building reported to be collapsed. she felt that the building and she had gone up to the seventh floor and left her friends on the lower floors, and the building started shaking, and she tried to leave, and the next thing she knew, it pancaked down, and she ended up in the rubble. relatively in good shape. >> we are showing the viewers that building the collapsed building right now. it looks like a miracle that she survived, because that building looks like a complete disaster. >> yeah. and she really doesn't know where she landed or how she landed, but she did -- she was yelling or trying to get out, and she, three haitians heard her and helped her to get out from underneath what she was

under, and maybe because she was on the top floor and her room was at the top floor she was not under too much of the rubble, but they took her in a pickup truck to the hospital. and since she was not seriously injured, she ended up having a broken arm and other bruises and a pretty significant laceration on her face, and she went over to the embassy near the hospital and spent the night there. the embassy called us yesterday and told us she was okay, and that is the first we heard of it. >> and what about the former roommate, molly hightower? >> molly, i don't know yet if she is okay. i have heard that one of her other acquaintances there, another volunteer, erin cluse was pulled out of the rubble, but she also had a brother who was visiting erin, brian, and we don't know about him.

>> all right. we have a picture of molly, her friend that she was, your daughter rachael was visiting. both involved in the friends of orphans organization, but she is now, i take it out of haiti? she is at the u.s. naval base in guantanamo bay, cuba, getting ready to come home? >> yes, they flew her out of the helicopter and took care of her there at the base, and she is in the hospital. communications are pretty sparse. but even at the hospital, and all of her stuff, cell phone and everything else was in that pile of rubble, so, she has nothing other than the hospital gown, but so, we are waiting to see how they will get her back. tentatively, we will go to florida today or tomorrow and then hopefully back home or back up to tacoma to go to school, and go back to school next week. >> well, you give her a big hug

and kiss and i am sure you will. thank god she is okay and on the way home, and it will take a little while, but you will be reunited and we are praying that her friend molly and all of her other friends who are there doing good work in haiti through this organization, friends of orphans, that they are okay as well. we can only pray right now. so many people around the world, mark, are getting involved in trying to do whatever they can to help all of these people in haiti. so are we here at cnn. thank you, mark. good luck to you and rachael and all of her friends and family. josh is getting an incredible number of i-reports and stories coming into cnn. this is one heartbreaking story after another, josh. >> it is. i am actually going to pick up on where you were just now, because you were talking about at an orphanage, and some of the organizations are there to help kids. what i have on the screen is

i-reports that we are getting. this is one orphanage from children's international lifeline, and this group has a bunch of children there, and they are telling us that even though you can see the devastation done to their building, all of the children at that facility are accounted for. they tell us that they have a series of these places around the country that feed as well as teach children, and so far, no reports of any kids injured. it is a reminder amid the horror of what we are seeing, just the stunning horror and i will show you more of that in a moment, but there are also these moments that are moments of relief, moments of heroism that will emerge from this, and adults save children, and other things like that. so, these are some of the striking photos coming into us via i-report. we are also looking at the images that people are sending each other worldwide and what images are getting a lot of traffic, and what i found is a series of images on the screen

here, and these originated from the associated press, and a lot of them sending them out in the twitter verse, but if you look closely, all of these are cars down here, and this is a giant chunk of building that has slammed down on top of them. if we can close in on this screen, but i want to lead up to a photo that i think is really striking. i have another one right here that i could show you which is a young child which is injured in the building crash, and i want to show you a couple here that shows the palace and i want to end for you, this one from the associated press, but take a look of a picture of no building there, but what we see is the anguish of a woman who just lost a loved one here, and when you look at that, this could be one of the iconic photos of what we could see, because in tend, this is the humanity of it, and people losing their loved ones. before we go, wolf, i want to say that we have been talking about it and showing the address on the screen, cnn.com/impact is a way to help. we have it right here and link it to numerous agencies that you

have been hearing mentioned. agencies going out there right now that have relief work done, and agencies vetted where we can show you what happens to the dollars. i encourage you to check it out cnn.com/impact for links to numerous agencies and you can decide how you want to help. you can help provide food or shelter and a lot of people say i want to volunteer even if it means going to the local office of the agency to do what i can. it is all right there. wolf, cnn.com/impact and it is getting a lot of traffic and we can see why. >> yes, it is important, and the viewers and i am getting a lot of reaction from the twitter followers, because they want to help, josh, right now, and if they go to cnn.com/impact, the impact your world segment, and you made an important point, all of the organizations involved have been vetted. these are legitimate organizations, doing important very good work. as hard as it is to believe,

there will be scam operations out there, so people have to be very, very careful, josh. weigh in on that. >> sh, i am glad you said that. i am following the internet, and there are groups out there, and it is inevitable, there are fake charities that spring up. there is an e-mail in the inbox looking for your secret bank account information. be very, very aware, and you want to be vetted. i won't throw a lot of names at you, but all you need to know is reason cnn.com/impact. when you get there, we link you to the agencies and the charity navigator which will show you what will happen to the dollars and it is protect and safe this way, and i am glad you said that, everyone should be weary of the e-mails popping up in the e-mail claiming to be charities that you have never heard of. >> and we want to go talk to

correspondents on the ground. cnn has an efor tnormous effortr way to make sure that all of the information coming out of haiti is the breaking news of haiti continues after this. boss: hey, those gecko ringtones you put on our website are wonderful. people love 'em! gecko: yeah, thank you sir. turned out nice. boss: got another one for you. anncr: at geico.com, it's easy to get a free rate quote, manage your policy, make payments or even file a claim! boss: now that's a ringtone. gecko: uh yeah...it's interesting.... certainly not the worst ringtone i've ever heard... ♪ ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding... ♪ gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

so many people around the world are getting involved. they're trying to do whatever they can to help the people of haiti right now. a country of nearly 10 million people. but 2 million in the capital of port-au-prince. and so many of them, so many of them deeply affected by what happened 24 hours ago. this earthquake, a 7.0 hitting haiti. just a little while ago i spoke with the former president of the united states bill clinton who is the special united nations envoy for haiti. >> well, first of all, wolf, it appears that an enormous percentage maybe as many as 1/3 of the country have been

adversely affected by it. we don't know how many people are dead yet. we did that last count we had pulled ten survivors out of our united nations headquarters, which as you know was in a five-story hotel that completely collapsed. we know there are fatalities, with don't know how many. and that's the same for people throughout the island. we still have lots and lots of people with missing family members. and we just have to keep hoping that we'll have more rescue teams down there. the united states sent more today, china sent one, russia's sending a helicopter or two tomorrow. people from all over the world are trying to help. but it's a devastating problem. last night the streets of port-au-prince were littered with wounded people sleeping and the bodies of those who had perished. and we're going to have, i think, another three or four really hard days of just clearing through the rubble to find the living and those who have died. >> and the former president

appealing to everyone. world leaders as well as average individuals around the world to get involved and help. let's speak with bob right now. he's with the salvation army in haiti. he's joining us via skype. bob, from what you have seen over these past 25 hours or so since the earthquake struck haiti, how bad is the situation from your eyewitness account? >> it's the worst thing i've ever seen. and i have participated in many, many disasters in many parts of the world. and it's the absolute worst i've seen because it's so overwhelming. it's so large of an area and a number of people and so much devastation in a concentrated area that there's -- i think it's going to take days if not weeks to sort of dig out and let alone begin to think about rebuilding or reassessing.

>> we've heard from initial reports that the mood is getting a little bit more tense now that people are not as, let's say as relieved or to just have survived that the situation is getting a little bit more tense. is that what you're seeing, bob? >> well, i think that's true. i'm hearing that, as well. i haven't observed it personally. i know that people are desperate. and i think there's an expectation that, you know, help will be on the way. and, of course, we all think that's going to be instantaneous. and we also know many of us that it's never the case. it cannot be. so i think there is that sentiment that most people are frustrated that the second night they haven't seen much of a response. they don't have a place to sleep, they don't have anything to eat. they still don't have water to drink. it's definitely a challenging situation.

where i am in port-au-prince, which, frankly is one of the poorest areas of port-au-prince. the mood is -- the mood is not tense as much as has been saddened. people just been devastated by what has happened to them and their neighbors and family. >> are all of your colleagues from the salvation army who have been working with you accounted for right now, bob? >> yes. yes. all of those in port-au-prince. not all of those outside of port-au-prince. we have 63 salvation army corps and church and communities throughout haiti. and we're trying to establish contact with all of them. but of course, communication's very difficult, distance is very vast. so we have teams of people working on trying to make those contacts. so they're not all accounted for, but in the heaviest affected areas, they are.

>> good luck. thanks for all of the important work you're doing. he's on the scene in port-au-prince joining us via skype. our coverage will continue after this.

here's a look at some of the shocking images in haiti from the associated press. dazed survivors on a curb in a major traffic artery in port-au-prince. just down the road, people sift through the rubble of a collapsed building. a woman sobs after finding the body of a loved one.